Thursday, August 31, 2017

Two weeks ago I did a little sewing for Friday Night Sew-In (hosted by Wendy of Sugarlane Designs on the 3rd Friday of each month), but I didn't get as much done on my projects as I would have liked. So I worked a bit more this past week and finished those projects up!!

The first project is a stitching piece I did for my mother-in-law. This is 'August WordPlay' by With Thy Needle and Thread, but I changed it to 'Summer' instead. I sewed on a backing, put tabs on so it can be hung and filled it with 5 layers of quilt batting to give it a little depth. I made the tabs just a little too small this time. I didn't have the 'Spring' one I made for her so I couldn't remember how long I left the tabs for it. This still works as I hung it on the rod she has, but it was a bit tight. I will have to remember that for the 'Autumn' one that I will be starting to stitch soon:)

This is 'Market Bag' from the Sewing To Sell book by Virginia Lindsey. I made one for myself last month and then my sister-in-law saw it and wanted one as well. I ended up giving her the first one I made because this one wasn't ready last week when I went to visit her. I made one change on this bag that I didn't make on the first one. The bags are to have a 7in boxed bottom, but I felt that took too much of the height away from the bag, so this bag has a 4 in deep boxed bottom. I've already used it once at out farmer's market and I really love this fabric!!

After my sister-in-law decided she wanted a market bag she started talking about wanting a Halloween themed stitching/zipper bag as well. So when I met with her last week we went to a fabric/quilting store and she picked out the cutest fabric!!! I'll make a large zipper project bag and a small zipper notions bag from these fabrics:) I'm pretty excited to see how they turn out!!

Next post *should* be about stitching, and I'm really excited to show off a couple new projects I'm getting ready to start stitching!!

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Well, I think I have officially caught the sock knitting bug!! Last week I finished my first pair and then my daughter asked for a pair of her own, soooo...

Using Kroy sock yarn.

I've finished the first sock and am just starting the heel flap on the second. Using THIS pattern.

Of course one pair of socks on the needles isn't enough, so I cast on another, this time using 'no-wool' yarn and a very similar pattern to the one above.

I got together with my sister-in-law Marianne and another friend last week and we ended up going to a yarn store. Oh, my. I was good and didn't buy anything - for now anyway, but there were SOOOO many sock yarns there!! I'm thinking that's what everyone is going to get for Christmas this year:)

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Linking up with Nicole at Frontier Dreams and her Crafting On link-up.

I didn't get any work done on my Cloud Wrap, but I have been wearing my fingers out working on socks!!!

I finally finished my very first pair of socks!!!

Using THIS pattern (except that I lengthened the leg portion) and Kroy Sock yarn. I'm super happy with these socks:)

My daughter wanted a pair as well, only she wants hers a little shorter than what I made mine. So I'm using the same pattern as above, but leaving the leg length the same as the pattern calls for. I'm ready to start the heal flap on this one.

And then I remembered that I had this yarn in my stash and as it is pretty different than the Kroy yarn, I went off to buy another pair of size 2 dpns and got started using the pattern on the back of the yarn band. The pattern is very similar to the above pattern, but one of the differences is that you are working on 3 needles instead of 4. This makes the yarn pull between needle one and two and try as I might to keep the tension tight, it shows up pretty badly. So I undid what I had done and I'm going to do it on 4 needles, I'll have to switch off by the time I get to the heel flap, but I can do that and I think it'll make for nicer socks. This yarn is almost elastic so it has a very different feel and look to the ones above. We will see which ones I prefer once they are done:)

Sunday, August 20, 2017

I made a tiny bit of progress for this month's Friday Night Sew In. Usually I sew a little earlier than 'Friday Night' but this week my hubby had all of Friday off of work, and we had some appointments in the morning. So I did a bit here and there on Friday and a little on Saturday morning too. Here is what I got done...

BTW - the Coffee M&M's are gone now:) They are SOOO good!!!

Pattern for a market bag cut out, sides sewn together, and handles pinned and sewn together. If this looks JUST like the one I did last month, that's because it is:) I showed my market bag to my sister in law and she wanted one as well:)

I also cut my 'Summer' Wordplay (With Thy Needle and Thread) stitched piece to size, ironed on the interfacing and went through my fabric stash to find a suitable backing fabric...

A good start for these two projects anyway. I was hoping to get both done this weekend but I think I'll have time to pull them back out this week and finish them up. Maybe I'll have finished projects for a 'Finish It Friday' post:)

Thursday, August 17, 2017

I've really had a good summer in the way of crafting this year. Lots of knitting and stitching going on:) I usually have a lull in my desire to create during the beginning of the summer, but didn't fall into that this year, which I'm really happy about:)

I'm currently working on two different projects. First is 'Tis the Season Sewing Bag' by Blackbird Designs...

Love the colors on this and that it will become a bag when I'm done!! Have I ever mentioned just how much I love bags?!?!? HA!!

And I've been working on Spring Snapperland by Bent Creek...

I really love this one too. I have charts for the whole set and only have the Autumn one done. Can't wait until they are all done.

Honestly, spring stitching is not what I'm in the mood for right now. Autumn stitching is just calling my name!! But I really don't need to start a new project, and really, really don't need another project for myself. I do have the 'Autumn' Wordplay from With Thy Needle and Thread that I need to get started for my mother-in-law. *Picture of Summer and Spring* But that is going to take a bit of time SO... I planned an exchange project on a Facebook pg I'm on so that I can indulge in another Autumn project, and not feel guilty for starting something else.:) Hehehe!! I haven't done an exchange for a while, so I'm pretty excited about it. Not sure yet what I'm going to stitch but maybe something from the Autumn Splendor charts by Brenda Gervias (With Thy Needle and Thread), I haven't decided which one yet.

Tomorrow is the monthly 'Friday Night Sew In' with Wendy at Sugarlane Designs. I need to decide what I'm going to sew on. My sister-in-law wants a market bag like I made HERE, and I need to sew up the Summer Wordplay for my mother-in-law, so those are probably the projects I will focus on. I should have pictures up of my progress by Saturday:)

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

I didn't get around to posting last week. Daughter got her wisdom teeth out on Monday (all 5 of them!!!), and then I had a 4-H event on Tuesday afternoon into late evening. Most of the rest of the week was nice and quiet and I have gotten quite a bit of knitting done!!!

First off, here is where I am on the second sock...

Yes, I said SECOND, although it arguably could be called the third sock. RECAP: I originally made a sock using THIS pattern, but thought it too short on the leg, so I left it as is and made another sock, but made it longer. (And if I'm being totally honest here, I got about half way on that one twice before finally finishing it). And now I'm working on the match for what will be my first knitted pair of socks!!!

My daughter tried on the very first sock I made - the shorter one- and decided it was the perfect length to wear with her skates. 'Perfect!!!', you would say, 'just go and get one more ball of yarn and then you'd have another pair!!' Well that would be perfect except for two things. My local Hobby Lobby no longer sells that colorway. That's not too big of a deal though, maybe they have it in the next town over, or I could probably order it if needed. The clincher? She hates pink!?!? So I took a picture of the yarn available at Hobby Lobby and this is what she chose...

Yes, of all the pretty colors she wanted black and white. Well, it does go with her white skates anyway. Now I am ready to start a new pair as soon as I finish the last sock, and truth-be-told, I probably would have already cast on except I only have one set of size 2 dpns. :)

I've also been working on my Cloud Wrap. This really is going to be the lightest/softest wrap ever. I'm loving working with this baby alpaca lace yarn!! It's going to be slow going from here on out as I'm just about to the widest part of it. It is going to be a bit smaller than the design as I'm using size 4 needles instead of size 5. I wanted the lace to be a bit tighter than it would have been. Super excited to see this one finished!!!

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll have a finished pair of socks by next week to show off!!

Friday, August 4, 2017

Most of the time when I post to my blog it has to do with knitting, stitching or sewing. But I do other things as well. Today I'm going to show a few things I've been up to this summer:)

One of the things my daughter entered into the county fair was this Country Apple Fritter Bread. It filled the whole house with apple/cinnamon-y goodness. Since I'm (mostly) gluten free, we don't usually bake in this house. I know there are ways around it, however most often the results just aren't what I had in mind, and I'm not a baker, so we just usually skip the baking. But this smelled SOOO good, I just had to give it a try the day after. All I did different was to substitute Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 gf flour for the flour it called for and it turned out really good. It was a bit too moist, so if you try it as a gf recipe, maybe add a bit more flour or a little less milk. Another reason we avoid baking in this house??? It was gone the same day I baked it. I had to force myself not to finish it off before anyone else got home!! :)

In the past I volunteered as a community leader with 4-H (meaning I was the adult leader for our club for 4 years). Last year I handed that off to a couple families in our club, but I am still one of the adult leaders for the 4-H Jr. Leaders group. This is a group of 12 year olds and up that help with several of the county events. Every year they put on a dance at the fair. All ages of kids can come and dance the evening away, they provide a DJ and snacks. The Jr. Leaders do most of the dancing, but the little kids have lots of fun too. I get to be one of the chaperones, and it is so fun watching the kids dance and be silly:) Above is my daughter dancing with one of the little girls. This little girl is also in the MOPs class that my daughter volunteers with so they know each other pretty well:)

From the road looking into our property. The only place where water runs through - though it's all dried up now:)

From the road right in front of our property - my favorite tree:)

I've taken some pictures on my walks. We live in the wide open country with farm ground and a few pastures all around us. Beyond the few trees we have on our property (soon to be more as we are letting a small area grow without cutting them down), it's hard to find much other than wheat/corn/milo/bean fields to look at. Earlier this summer we got quite a bit of nice rain, so it was a least a pretty green. Now it's dried up a bit, but if you look hard you can still find the beauty in it:)

From my walk yesterday - the fields beyond are fallow right now, but there are some pretty wildflowers along the road.

Our little house.

Right now there's not much color outside, so I decided to take a couple of tea bottles that we have be drinking like crazy and make use of them. These are fake flowers, but they bring a bit of color into the house:)

It's time for my to run now, I'm meeting my sister-in-law at a small independent bookstore and cafe for some stitching time:) It'll be fun!!

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

After finishing my Tidal Sands Cowl last week, I went back and forth on whether I should start a new project or pull out an old one. Of course starting a new one won out!!

I went through and found the softest yarn I had and lo and behold, it was already packed away with the pattern I bought it to go with!!

I'm working on Cloud Wrap from Helen at Curious Handmade, knit with Knit Pick's Alpaca Cloud lace weight in colorway 'Anna'. This yarn is so very soft made from 100% baby alpaca. So far the wrap is a triangle of stockinette stitch with garter stitch edging, but I'm getting ready to start adding the star stitch.

I also played around with the sock I was making. If you remember I made one using THIS pattern. On the second sock I decided to make a couple changes. First I wanted the leg part longer, and I also added a few stitches to make it wider. Everything was going well until I got to the heel turn and I couldn't figure out how to make the extra stitches work. After quite a lot of time trying to figure things out, I tried on the first sock I made, decided that I still wanted the leg section longer but I really didn't need it to be bigger around, so I took it all apart and started over, again. I am happy with the change and excited to get this one done so I can make a matching sock and MAYBE actually have my first pair of knitted socks by the time the weather changes!?!? HAHAHA